Warrior Princess
by Lady Adri
Summary: On his way home, seventeen year old Bellamy comes across a distraught twelve year old Clarke. His big brother instincts take over. Set in my "Rewritten" A/U


**Warrior Princess**

The so-called library on the Ark was not very impressive to look at. It was only when you considered what had gone into the book-filled, ex-cafeteria of Mecha Station to make it possible, did it awe you. It had started with whatever books the cosmonauts had brought onto the space stations with them back when the Earth was nuked. Since then, some devout book readers had taken the vegetative waste from Agro Station to make papyrus for copying other books from their digital format. In the ninety-seven years since this had started, the large room now had books all along the walls and several narrow stacks that one could get lost in if they so chose.

Most people thought that this was a great waste of time, but for Bellamy, or rather for Octavia, it was essential. Without the contents of the library, Octavia wouldn't have been at the same level of education as any other kid on the Ark her age. It wasn't that Bellamy couldn't access the material from his school tablet, he could, but the tablet logged a history of everything that was downloaded onto it, even after it had been deleted. Granted, you could only access it if you knew how, but if by chance someone looked at Bellamy's history and saw that a seventeen-year-old with a propensity for history and math was spending an awful lot of time reading materials on literature designed for a sixth-grade reading level, well then there would be suspicions. It was just better to be safe than sorry. At least that's what had been drilled into Bellamy's head by his mother since Octavia had been born.

Which is why every week he found himself making the long trek from Factory Station to the library in search of whatever new material he could get his hands on for O to enjoy. Mr. Patel, an old retired journalist for the Ark News and volunteer librarian, knew exactly when to expect Bellamy. He was already pulling out a stack of books from underneath his desk when Bellamy walked up.

"Hey, Squirt. Still tutoring that kid?" It was the beginning of the conversation that they had every week.

Bellamy gave him a smile, "What can I say? I like the little devil."

"Next time tell him that he's old enough now to come and get his own books."

"But then I wouldn't get to see your ugly mug every week," Bellamy quipped as he put the new stack of books under his arm. As far as the librarian knew, Bellamy spent most of his free time tutoring a kid in Factory Station. It was a lie with just enough truth to make it believable, just like he had been taught to do.

Patel laughed and waved his hand at him dismissively. "Go on, get out of here."

As Bell left the library, he checked the time on the clock on the wall. He had just enough time to change before meeting his date, Karlee. Thinking of her legs that went up to her ears, he smiled to himself and jogged his way towards the shortcut.

This was Bellamy's favorite walk in the entire station, or at least in the parts he had seen. It was a series of passageways that usually only maintenance workers knew about because they were too narrow to be of any use as a regular corridor. The inner wall was only a shoulder's-width apart from the outer hull of the Ark, but right where Mecha met Factory, there was a little piece of heaven.

The corridor let out into a small room, only about ten feet by ten feet. It was unremarkable except for one wall that was made up entirely of transparent tempered fiberglass and at the right time of day, usually in the early morning and late afternoon, the rotation of the Ark let anyone lucky enough see an amazing view of Earth. Whenever he was able to slip away from his mother and Octavia, this room was where Bellamy spent his time. He would look down through the clouds to the land below and follow the outline of the continents, recounting as much of their history as he could, imagining himself playing a part in those events, until Earth would slip out of view.

He was just rounding the last corner before his hideout when he heard it. It was faint, but the sound was unmistakable to someone who had spent uncountable times consoling a young, lonely girl. Someone was crying.

Slowing his pace, Bellamy rounded the corner. Sitting right up against the observation window was a girl around Octavia's age, maybe a little older. Tears had made her eyes and face red in patches and her blonde curls were messily falling out of their low ponytail. She was at that same gangly phase that O was currently going through, but he could tell she'd be a looker by the time she was his age. The whole scene just sent his overprotective big brother instincts into overdrive.

The girl jumped when Bellamy cleared his throat, hastily wiping at her eyes and tucking the wayward strands behind her ears. "I'm sorry," she said in a voice husky from crying, "I didn't think anyone used this passage."

"I thought the same thing until now," he smiled, cautiously moving towards the spot next to her. He noticed her wince as she placed her hand down to scooch over to make room for him by the window but decided not to bring attention to it right way. Taking the invitation, he sat down and looked out. There was Earth in all its cloudy glory. The same feeling of longing always overcame him at the sight.

They both just sat there for a moment, staring at the so close, yet so far globe. "I know you don't know me," he began, "but sometimes it helps to talk about what's bothering you."

"It's stupid."

"Why?"

"Because I did something stupid and now I'm too afraid to go home and face my parents' disappointment."

"What did you do?"

"I punched a boy in my class."

"Why?"

"He called me princess."

Don't laugh, Bellamy thought as he covered up an almost-chortle with a cough.

"I know plenty of girls who'd love to be called princess."

He couldn't help but find it fascinating as her ears and face flushed in anger, "It wasn't a compliment. He only said it because my parents have good jobs and my best friend's dad is the incumbent Chancellor. Besides, princesses are usually the damsel in distress, and I don't ever want to be a distressed damsel."

Bellamy thought that the "princess" had quite the vocabulary for a girl who couldn't be more than twelve. He was also put into a tight spot. On one hand, he wanted to help the girl feel better, but on the other he could identify with the name-caller. So many times, he had resented people from the higher ranks whose bright and shiny future was guaranteed. Meanwhile, if Bellamy wasn't accepted in the next year for Guard training, he would be stuck as something menial…like a janitor.

As he was trying to come up with something to make her feel better, a story that his father used to tell him popped into his head, "I get not wanting to be a damsel, but there are some pretty brave and powerful princesses out there."

With a disbelieving sigh, she asked, "Like who?"

"My father used to tell me stories about a princess named Diana. The first-born daughter of the Amazons, she was given a gift by six different Greek gods. When she was old enough, she went out and joined the rest of the world and protected them from the vengeful gods and other criminals. She used her Lasso of Truth and the people called her Wonder Woman."

She raised a tawny eyebrow and lets out a little snort, "I know who Wonder Woman is." She rubbed the final traces of tears from her eyes, and even though they're bloodshot, there's something so familiar about them that he just couldn't place.

Shrugging, he leaned against the space-cold fiberglass. "Then I don't have to tell you just how awesome a princess can be, but in case you've forgotten…" Bellamy shuffled through his stack of books until his fingers touched a plastic sleeve. Pulling the comic book from the stack, he held it out to her. Reading comic books from the library was one of his favorite past-times, a relic of nostalgia, one of the few things left that clearly reminded him of his long-dead father.

The girl stared at the cover for a long time before raising her head and showing him the cover of the scantily clad superhero. "Really?"

He laughed at that. "Well…times were different back then. Gender equality was a very new concept. I can take it back-"He reached out to take the packet back.

She snatched the comic to her chest. "No…I…thank you." Some of the tension finally released from her shoulders.

"You know what brave princesses also do?"

She scowled, the sighed, resigned. "Go home and tell their parents they got in trouble at school and face the consequences?"

Impressed by the pre-teen's self-awareness, he gave her a little nudge to the shoulder.

Mission complete, Bellamy stood up and smoothed out his jacket. "You got it. Just take that comic back to the library when you're finished with it." He reached out and ruffled her blonde curls, "Take care of yourself, Princess."

As he walked back to his family's quarters to quickly get ready for his date, he couldn't shake the feeling that he had seen that girl somewhere before. He kept rubbing the fingers that had touched the girls head, trying to place it. There was something about the gold locks….

Suddenly, a memory came to the surface from when he was a kid, maybe a little younger than the girl was now, squeezing through the marketplace. A collision. The green ribbon that O had worn every day until it had practically frayed apart. A toss of blonde ringlets as she's picked up into her father's arms.

The memory made him smile.


End file.
